The Crazy Horse Memorial is a mountain monument under construction on privately held land in the Black Hills, South Dakota. It will depict the Oglala Lakota warrior, Crazy Horse, riding a horse and pointing into the distance. The memorial was commissioned by Henry Standing Bear, a Lakota elder, to be sculpted by Korczak Ziolkowski. It is operated by the Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation, a nonprofit organization.[...] The monument is being carved out of Thunderhead Mountain, on land considered sacred by some Oglala Lakota, between Custer and Hill City, roughly 17 miles (27 km) from Mount Rushmore. The sculpture's final dimensions are planned to be 641 feet (195 m) wide and 563 feet (172 m) high. The head of Crazy Horse will be 87 feet (27 m) high; by comparison, the heads of the four U.S. Presidents at Mount Rushmore are each 60 feet (18 m) high. The monument has been in progress since 1948 and is far from completion. (From Wikipedia)

Daphne and I were there twice, the most recent being late June, 2012. It was also very late in the day. The light was about as wrong as wrong could be, but as I keep saying "Ya takes yer pitcher wiv the light ya gots." That means ya can't hang around to the next day to get the right light, see?

So as usual at this time I am shooting a tiny-sensor Nikon P7000 and still not shooting raw (any more I'm not even sure what I was thinking all those years). What I wanted, basically, was this:

Crazy-horse-comparison.jpg (11.85 KiB) Viewed 810 times

But at the late hour what I actually got was this:

I probably would have exposed it this way even had I been shooting raw, but since I was still stuck on jpeg it was essential that I not overexpose and blow the detail in the sunlit area. I had also waited and waited and waited and waited for the furshlugginer turistas to stop wandering into my frame but that was not to be so I hoped I could somehow clone the worst of 'em out. The tiny sensor helps in one regard: astonishing depth of field. I also backed up as far as I could so as to compress the perspective as much as I could.

Without going into interminable detail, I started in Lightroom (remember this is a jpeg) doing the basics, shadows, highlights, white and black points, so on yada et cetera. I carefully painted the entire unfinished mountain sculpture with the adjustment brush in the shadow areas and raised the value. Then I cropped it to minimize Mister Oblivious there and took it into Photoshop to use tools such as the patch and content-aware spotting to remove him and the kid in the orange shirt. All in all I think it's a pretty decent job, but if I ever get back there I know I hafta get there in the morning! And shoot raw!

Charles Haacker wrote:The Crazy Horse Memorial is a mountain monument under construction on privately held land in the Black Hills, South Dakota. It will depict the Oglala Lakota warrior, Crazy Horse, riding a horse and pointing into the distance. The memorial was commissioned by Henry Standing Bear, a Lakota elder, to be sculpted by Korczak Ziolkowski. It is operated by the Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation, a nonprofit organization.[...] The monument is being carved out of Thunderhead Mountain, on land considered sacred by some Oglala Lakota, between Custer and Hill City, roughly 17 miles (27 km) from Mount Rushmore. The sculpture's final dimensions are planned to be 641 feet (195 m) wide and 563 feet (172 m) high. The head of Crazy Horse will be 87 feet (27 m) high; by comparison, the heads of the four U.S. Presidents at Mount Rushmore are each 60 feet (18 m) high. The monument has been in progress since 1948 and is far from completion. (From Wikipedia)

Daphne and I were there twice, the most recent being late June, 2012. It was also very late in the day. The light was about as wrong as wrong could be, but as I keep saying "Ya takes yer pitcher wiv the light ya gots." That means ya can't hang around to the next day to get the right light, see?

So as usual at this time I am shooting a tiny-sensor Nikon P7000 and still not shooting raw (any more I'm not even sure what I was thinking all those years). What I wanted, basically, was this: Crazy-horse-comparison.jpgBut at the late hour what I actually got was this:DSCN1249-2.BIG.jpgI probably would have exposed it this way even had I been shooting raw, but since I was still stuck on jpeg it was essential that I not overexpose and blow the detail in the sunlit area. I had also waited and waited and waited and waited for the furshlugginer turistas to stop wandering into my frame but that was not to be so I hoped I could somehow clone the worst of 'em out. The tiny sensor helps in one regard: astonishing depth of field. I also backed up as far as I could so as to compress the perspective as much as I could.DSCN1249-2-Edit.BIG.jpgWithout going into interminable detail, I started in Lightroom (remember this is a jpeg) doing the basics, shadows, highlights, white and black points, so on yada et cetera. I carefully painted the entire unfinished mountain sculpture with the adjustment brush in the shadow areas and raised the value. Then I cropped it to minimize Mister Oblivious there and took it into Photoshop to use tools such as the patch and content-aware spotting to remove him and the kid in the orange shirt. All in all I think it's a pretty decent job, but if I ever get back there I know I hafta get there in the morning! And shoot raw!

I've been to Rushmore; but somehow did not get to Crazy Horse. Should have. I like that you got the mock up with the actual mountain in the background. I wonder if it will ever get finished. Erich

I've seen this monument, and tried to photograph it on a similar day with similar results. Gave up trying to get the mountain in the frame with the statue. You did a really good job of dragging him out of the shadows with your PP. It might be an interesting exercise in PS to go the rest of the way, and try to eliminate the building behind the statue, the people and platform below! It would be tedious, frustrating, but good practice. I do things like this sometime, and get annoyed enough to blow up my monitor, but it still intrigues me to try and do surgery on pictures.

"God gave me photography so that I could pray with my eyes" - Dewitt Jones

ErichBrunner wrote:I've been to Rushmore; but somehow did not get to Crazy Horse. Should have. I like that you got the mock up with the actual mountain in the background. I wonder if it will ever get finished. Erich

Both monuments are SO impressive, but like you, Erich, I wonder if Crazy Horse will ever be finished. My understanding is that the gov't has repeatedly offered to help but been refused. There has been some controversy among the First Nations also, argument about whether Henry Standing Bear had the authority to commission the monument, argument about its placement, argument about the pointing finger (Lakota don't point with a finger but with the whole hand; the single finger can be, ah, misinterpreted), so on and so forth. There have even been accusations that the Ziolkowski family has been foot-dragging because they have a very profitable gig going, and they are not even First Nation. [*SIGH*] So it goes...

minniev wrote:I've seen this monument, and tried to photograph it on a similar day with similar results. Gave up trying to get the mountain in the frame with the statue. You did a really good job of dragging him out of the shadows with your PP. It might be an interesting exercise in PS to go the rest of the way, and try to eliminate the building behind the statue, the people and platform below! It would be tedious, frustrating, but good practice. I do things like this sometime, and get annoyed enough to blow up my monitor, but it still intrigues me to try and do surgery on pictures.

Thanks, Minnie. I often kick myself for not waiting for the light or the weather, but when we were traveling we really couldn't. We had to get in, get out, and move on. If I were doing it commercially it might have been different, but we were just plain ol' turistas. Sometimes I tried Daphne's patience by waiting for whatever in order to make a better pitcher. In most cases we would have a reservation at the next camp so we couldn't hang around, much less come back. I've shot stuff in rain, fog, and mostly really bad light (think Grand Canyon at noon with haze). I'm just happy that today we have tools that make it possible to drag a Rayon purse from a sow's ear, kinda sorta-ish. It puts me in mind, though, of the ongoing argument about "fixing" stuff after the fact because one was too "lazy" to get it right in the first place. Sometimes "lazy" has nothing to do with it.

Charles Haacker wrote:[i]The Crazy Horse Memorial is a mountain monument under construction on privately held land in the Black Hills, South Dakota. It will depict the Oglala Lakota warrior, Crazy Horse, riding a horse and pointing into the distance. The memorial was commissioned by Henry Standing Bear, a Lakota elder, to be sculpted by Korczak Ziolkowski. It is operated by the Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation, a nonprofit organization....

I haven't visited yet, but feel like I traveled with you. Thank you so much for sharing this with us! S-

Thanks, Minnie. I often kick myself for not waiting for the light or the weather, but when we were traveling we really couldn't. We had to get in, get out, and move on. If I were doing it commercially it might have been different, but we were just plain ol' turistas. Sometimes I tried Daphne's patience by waiting for whatever in order to make a better pitcher. In most cases we would have a reservation at the next camp so we couldn't hang around, much less come back. I've shot stuff in rain, fog, and mostly really bad light (think Grand Canyon at noon with haze). I'm just happy that today we have tools that make it possible to drag a Rayon purse from a sow's ear, kinda sorta-ish. It puts me in mind, though, of the ongoing argument about "fixing" stuff after the fact because one was too "lazy" to get it right in the first place. Sometimes "lazy" has nothing to do with it.

I totally agree. When I'm traveling I am often on a day to day itinerary too, usually with my non-photographer husband who thinks a picture of one mountain is sufficient to cover all mountains, or with my photo travel-buddy, in which case we are trying to cover a lot of ground in a short time.Either way, I have to make the most out of whatever light, distractions, weather, and other conditions are present at the moment. My travel buddy and I have threatened to write our own book called "Landscape Photography For The Rest Of Us", and tell all the workarounds we've discovered, which don't include staying in a target site for weeks exploring perfect sunrise locations, then napping during the day to await the golden hour. (I have read about this scenario in SO many photo books by pro landscapers) It just isn't practical for many of us real people.

"God gave me photography so that I could pray with my eyes" - Dewitt Jones

St3v3M wrote:I haven't visited yet, but feel like I traveled with you. Thank you so much for sharing this with us! S-

Thanks Steve! Daphne and I packed in a really impressive number of road trips in the 7 years we had from retirement (plus a few others). Maybe we sensed we hadn't much time. We would take off for months with Rose the Tiny Tent Trailer (we could never have afforded it without her). 2014 was the Grand Finale it turned out: 99 days, 16,000 miles, 16 states, 30 camps. Thanks to the Miracle of Digital, for every one of those trips from 2007 on there is a dedicated Flickr album. I'm awfully glad I have them.

minniev wrote:

Thanks, Minnie. I often kick myself for not waiting for the light or the weather, but when we were traveling we really couldn't. We had to get in, get out, and move on. If I were doing it commercially it might have been different, but we were just plain ol' turistas. Sometimes I tried Daphne's patience by waiting for whatever in order to make a better pitcher. In most cases we would have a reservation at the next camp so we couldn't hang around, much less come back. I've shot stuff in rain, fog, and mostly really bad light (think Grand Canyon at noon with haze). I'm just happy that today we have tools that make it possible to drag a Rayon purse from a sow's ear, kinda sorta-ish. It puts me in mind, though, of the ongoing argument about "fixing" stuff after the fact because one was too "lazy" to get it right in the first place. Sometimes "lazy" has nothing to do with it.

I totally agree. When I'm traveling I am often on a day to day itinerary too, usually with my non-photographer husband who thinks a picture of one mountain is sufficient to cover all mountains, or with my photo travel-buddy, in which case we are trying to cover a lot of ground in a short time.Either way, I have to make the most out of whatever light, distractions, weather, and other conditions are present at the moment. My travel buddy and I have threatened to write our own book called "Landscape Photography For The Rest Of Us", and tell all the workarounds we've discovered, which don't include staying in a target site for weeks exploring perfect sunrise locations, then napping during the day to await the golden hour. (I have read about this scenario in SO many photo books by pro landscapers) It just isn't practical for many of us real people.

Boy is that ever the truth! If you ever decide to write the book, gimme a shout and I'll try to give you some of mine!

Charles Haacker wrote:Thanks Steve! Daphne and I packed in a really impressive number of road trips in the 7 years we had from retirement (plus a few others). Maybe we sensed we hadn't much time. We would take off for months with Rose the Tiny Tent Trailer (we could never have afforded it without her). 2014 was the Grand Finale it turned out: 99 days, 16,000 miles, 16 states, 30 camps. Thanks to the Miracle of Digital, for every one of those trips from 2007 on there is a dedicated Flickr album. I'm awfully glad I have them.

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